The internal block at the bottom holds the tail button to which the tailpiece (which holds the strings) is hitched.

The fingerboard and tailpiece are now usually of ebony (boxwood was formerly used) Just within the margins of belly and back, a groove in the wood is filled with ‘purfling’: thin strips of some other wood, contrasting in colour and pattern.

The strings had snapped, the fingerboard was half off, the ornate bridge had shattered and the tailpiece had fallen off.